


i guess you're lucky that it's dark now

by macaronidoodles



Category: Dimension 20 (Web Series), Fantasy High
Genre: Blood and Injury, Coming Out, F/F, but tag is there for safety!, like show level description, the violence/blood and injury is minor
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-02-04
Updated: 2020-02-04
Packaged: 2021-02-27 19:55:46
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,192
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/22551364
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/macaronidoodles/pseuds/macaronidoodles
Summary: They're in the Forest of the Nightmare King, and Fig is really beginning to regret lying about her and Ayda.
Relationships: Ayda Aguefort/Figueroth Faeth, Kristen Applebees & Figueroth Faeth
Comments: 3
Kudos: 125





	i guess you're lucky that it's dark now

**Author's Note:**

> The spirit of canon Figayda possessed me to write fic for the first time in literally six years. I also wrote it in, like, a day, so please be gentle w/ me!
> 
> Violence is minor, as stated in the tags, but if you want to skip the more graphic stuff, it starts at the line 'She's so fucking stupid' and ends at '"Fig!" Kristen calls, and rushes over.'
> 
> Title from White Teeth Teens by Lorde.

They're in the Forest of the Nightmare King, and Fig is really beginning to regret lying about her and Ayda.

She was _planning_ on telling them. Not right away, obviously, or she wouldn’t have burned two luck points to stop Riz investigating her (which is actually pretty invasive, if you think about it, so really she was justified there), but, like, at some point. When, exactly, she was planning on doing it is vague; sometime after all their investigating and tinkering in Arborley, she thinks at first, and then she gets subpoenaed by a demon (which, _what the fuck, that’s a thing?_ ) so they have to deal with _that_ , and then before she can really process what’s happening they’re in the Forest of the Nightmare King for real, the razor-sharp thorns curling in to cover the entrance she’d made. They all stand in silence, collectively shivering, as the light is slowly blocked out. Fig’s glad her mom made Gilear stay behind with her in the van. He would probably just keel over from terror if he had to stay here too long, (he’s terrified of the dark, even though he has darkvision), and Kristen swore before they left that she wouldn’t waste any more spell slots keeping him alive. Which, rude, but she hadn’t argued. She’s trying not to attract Kristen’s attention right now.

Their silence doesn’t last long, because Gorgug accidentally knocks into one of the trees, which, it turns out, are sentient and very aggressive, and after that, it’s non-stop combat or following the trail Adaine’s mother and sister left, so there’s no time for a quick ‘I-kissed-Ayda-also-I-guess-I-like-girls?’ convo. She stays quiet. Everyone’s on edge, which is good because it means they don’t notice her being doubly on edge, and she figures she can put talking about her feelings off until after they defeat Kalina and the Nightmare King. Supposing they live that long, of course.

But she forgot, because she’s an idiot, that this is the Nightmare King, and the Nightmare King thrives on lies. She’s kind of mad, because this is not _technically_ a lie, just an omission of truth, and when they finally meet this fucker she’s going to explain the difference to him in great detail as she rips the stupid crown off his stupid head. Or maybe did she lie, earlier? Whatever, it’s not going to make a difference when she stabs this dude in the eye. And it doesn’t change the fact that right now she’s alone in the dark, a nightmare version of Ayda is standing in front of her.

“Ayda?” she says, voice wavering, even though she knows it’s a trick, even though the real Ayda is safe, somewhere far away. She wants this Ayda to be real. Maybe with Ayda here, Fig can stop this I’m-not-afraid-of-anything front that she’s been putting on since the forest swallowed them up, that she’s been repeating over and over to herself ever since she got separated from the others, what could be minutes ago but feels like hours. Maybe with Ayda here she could let herself be scared.

Not-Ayda moves closer, and she’s definitely a fake because she moves too smoothly to be her Ayda, who’s gangly and awkward and terribly endearing, who only seems at ease in flight or when they kiss. Fig’s heart drops, even as she steels herself.

“Fi-ig,” Not-Ayda says.

“What, bitch?” she says, harsh and biting, and she means it. How dare this evil fucking nightmare whatever-the-fuck impersonate Ayda? How dare it try to scare her? Well, fuck you, it’s not going to work. She’s Fig Faeth-the-Insatiable and she’s not taking your creepy bullshit today. She slings her bass around to her front and strums a chord as she says _bitch_ , casting _Vicious Mockery_ to stall for time, and tries to remember anything Riz said about the nightmare creature he fought back when they were still in Solace. She regrets not paying attention when he told them the story in the back of the van, shivering, but she’d been five kinds of fucked up about almost killing him and had spent most of the night just staring at her hands, making sure she could still control them.

“Fi-ig,” Not-Ayda says again, tilting its head to the side, and _gods_ she hates this. She’s made herself into a different person to push someone else’s buttons enough to know when it’s being done to her. It’s working, which pisses her off more. Surely she should have some kind of immunity to this.

“Fi-ig.”

Fig has had enough. “Shut _up_!” she hisses. “You – are – not – Ayda!” She punctuates each word with a pluck of her bass strings and throws a couple of _Dissonant Whispers_ and then _Shatter_ at the creature. It doesn’t fight back, just stands there and takes it until it buckles and falls to the ground, blood leaking from its ears.

“Yeah, get fucked, dick,” she says, but the fight’s gone out of her. She sighs, then gently prods the creature with the toe of her boot to check it’s dead.

The damn thing is still going. “Fi-ig,” it says, weakly, and is it her imagination or does it sound more like real Ayda now? “Fi-ig. Why did you hurt me, Fig?”

Her blood runs cold. “I didn’t – I didn’t mean to hurt you,” she says, crouching down beside her. “I thought – aren’t you –”

“I came to help,” Ayda says. There’s fire-flecked blood on her robes, and she coughs up more into the dirt. “I thought you wanted me to come back.”

“I did, I did – fuck,” Fig says, reaching out a shaky hand to heal Ayda’s wounds. She did that. She hurt Ayda, and now Ayda won’t trust her, ever, and she’ll be alone again. She hurt Ayda, just like she hurts everyone – she almost killed Riz, and she didn’t save Adaine from being kidnapped, and Kristen – she can’t think about it right now, focuses her energy into the healing spell as she mumbles apologies. “I’m sorry, Ayda,” she repeats tearily, trying to fix this and knowing it can’t be done, that she’s fucked up the one good relationship she’s ever had beyond repair. She reaches out to her face to cast another healing spell, tries to cup Ayda’s face as she’d done the first time they’d kissed. Ayda’s skin is always warm, almost feverish, but what Fig touches is cold and hard, like bone.

She’s so fucking stupid.

The creature that is not Ayda lunges as her fingers brush its face, grabbing her by the wrists and yanking her into the ground before she can grab her bass.

“You HURT ME!” the creature shrieks, raking its clawed hand across her stomach. Fig cries out as she feels the skin tear, and the damn thing must have two attacks because it’s swinging down again, into her shoulder this time. She feels sick, and she’s not sure if it’s from some kind of poison or the image of Ayda bleeding into the dirt.

She tries to spit out a “Fuck you,” as a _Vicious Mockery,_ but it doesn’t seem to have any effect, and now the creature is reaching back to attack again and she knows that if it hits she’ll be dead. _Ayda_ , she thinks, _I’m sorry_. She closes her eyes and braces for impact.

It doesn’t come. Instead, there’s a flash of light, and when she opens her eyes she sees a bunch of Kristen’s Spirit Guardians standing over her, spouting philosophical nonsense at the Not-Ayda. She clutches her blood-soaked stomach and scrambles backwards as they finish it off. The nightmarish Ayda screeches one last time and explodes into smoke, insubstantial and dream-like.

“Fig!” Kristen calls, and rushes over to her, a healing spell already at her fingertips. The skin of Fig’s stomach knots together under Kristen’s warm touch, and she breathes out in relief as the pain fades.

“Thanks,” she mutters. She heaves herself into a sitting position, trying to steady her breathing.

“Are you okay?” Kristen asks, concern filling her voice.

“Are _you_ okay?” Fig says. Kristen’s face is all splotchy from tears, and there’s blood matting her hair.

“I think so,” Kristen says, wiping her forehead where she sees Fig staring. “I just fought one of those nightmare things too. Tracker, but dead.”

“Oh, Kristen,” Fig says.

“It was fine. I cast _Warding Bond_ on her before we got split up, so I knew she was okay. It’s just... fucked up, man.” Kristen shivers a little. “Anyway, you didn’t answer my question.”

Fig shrugs, winces a little from her not-quite-healed shoulder. “I’m fine.”

Kristen doesn’t say anything for a moment, just pivots so she’s sat in directly in front of Fig and takes her hand. “Fig.” she says, gently. “I saw.”

“Oh.” Fig bites her lip.

“Do you like Ayda?”

She could lie. She could put her walls back up and pretend that she doesn’t know what Kristen is talking about, and put off this conversation for another day, somewhere far off in the future.

But. But. They might die. They might die, and she wants to stop hurting people, and maybe that includes herself.

“Yeah,” she finds herself saying, “I do. We kissed.”

“Fig!” Kristen squeals, and pulls her into a tight armed hug. “That’s so exciting! I’m so happy for you!”

“You’re not mad?” Fig says into Kristen’s shoulder.

“Why would I be?” Kristen says, pulling back a little to look at her, her brows furrowed in confusion. Fig is constantly in awe of how expressive Kristen is; she never hides anything she’s feeling from anyone, acts as if she doesn’t even have the capacity to do so. Even when she has to lie, like when she was talking to Kalina earlier today (or was it yesterday, now?), she springs back to sincerity and vulnerability so fast it’s a wonder she doesn’t get whiplash. She’s a bit like Ayda in that way.

Fig wonders what it’s like to live like that: no walls, no boundaries, just feelings, good or bad. She wonders if she can try.

“I guess, I don’t know,” she says, tentatively. “I kind of knew a while ago, when you were going through your whole sexuality crisis thing. I could have said something then, and you wouldn’t have been as alone.”

She can’t look at Kristen while she speaks – this is all she’s been thinking about since the kiss, other than Ayda, and really she has been thinking this for a long time. If she’s honest with herself, she’s known she was bi since before her horns came in, she just – never told anyone. She couldn't hide the horns, but she could hide this. And then she met the Bad Kids, and Kristen, and it was so hard for her back then, and she could have made things easier if she wasn’t such a coward –

Kristen laughs, loud and carefree and joyous, and the sound reverberates defiantly through the sentient trees, chasing back the shadows. “But I wasn’t alone, Fig! I still had you, then, and you were amazing. You gave me a new _home_. And you’re not alone in this, either, because you have me. You have all of us, and we love you.”

“Oh,” Fig says, a lump suddenly in her throat. “I love you, too.”

"Also," Kristen says, "I always kind of got a vibe."

"You did not," Fig says, rolling her eyes. "You just think everyone's gay."

"And I'm always fucking right!" Kristen grins, and hugs her again. “And now we get to be gay together!” She pauses, and Fig can see the cogs turning in her brain. “Well, not gay _together_ ,” she says, “Because you have Ayda, and I have a girlfriend, and we haven’t discussed polyamory before, although if that was something Tracker wanted to explore I wouldn’t be mad at it I guess–”

“Kristen,” Fig says, before her friend can dig a deeper hole. “We should probably make sure our friends aren’t dead.”

“Oh, right,” Kristen gets to her feet and offers Fig a hand up. “Which way, do you reckon?”

As soon as the question leaves her mouth, there’s the sound of a gunshot behind them, with what sounds distinctly like a chorus of teenage boys screaming “Spring Break!”

“That way, I guess,” Fig says, smiling. She lets Kristen pull her up, doesn’t let go of her hand.

“Do you want to talk about the other stuff?” Kristen says. “What the nightmare Ayda was saying?”

“Maybe later,” Fig says. She's done a lot of vulnerability today, and they have bigger things to worry about. “Thanks, though.”

“If you’re sure,” Kristen picks up her staff and casts _Light_ on it so they can see better. From somewhere in the distance, there are inhuman howls, and nearby something shadowy scuttles between the trees. They both jump as something swooshes down close to their heads and flies off again. Fig can hear Kristen’s heart pounding.

“Fig?” Kristen says. “I’m really scared.”

Fig squeezes her hand. “Me too,” she admits, surprising herself. It feels weird, but good. She thinks she likes it. “Let’s go.”

They walk into the darkness, hand in hand, to face the next nightmare. 

**Author's Note:**

> Truly, is there a better metaphor for realising that you're gay/coming out than having to fight your worst fears in a forest of nightmares? 
> 
> I love Kristen, and I love Fig, and I love that we have two canon queer PCs!! I'm sure they will talk on the show but I am impatient and wanted it now, dammit. Their friendship was so good already (platonic snuggling!) and Fig being queer just makes it so much better aaahh. Also, Fig not telling everyone about her and Ayda is for sure going to come back and bite her in the ass, and I am both excited and terrified to see how that plays out. 
> 
> Follow me on the new tumblr I made specifically to yell about Figayda, so that I am no longer just screaming into an empty void: @aydaofleviathan
> 
> Kudos and comments appreciated! Validate me for writing this instead of working on my dissertation lol


End file.
